The Ghost In The Fog
by AshleyKay
Summary: Harper helps Justin find Juliet and they deal with the aftermath. justin/juliet. justin/harper chapter two: it's summer and magical creatures are going missing.
1. There Was Fog In My Dreams

**The Ghost In The Fog**

_harper/justin _

_justin/juliet_

**i. _i wept 'til tears crept back to prayer_**

When she dreams it's in heavy fog. There's the sound of her mother's voice, the shrill pang of fighting and an almost (almost she can remember when her family was whole and them and she could sleep without waking).

But her family's gone now, across states and hills and she's sleeping in a basement and she's still lost in a fog.

She takes up running and she plays her tapes of dogs, but it's not the fanged domestics she runs from, it's the almost.

Almost family and almost loved but never nearly whole.

Even after the embarrassment of lost trophies and not really good enoughs, she takes up quiet training.

She oils the beast and the machine and runs to forget.

But she never gets far enough to lose sight.

_**ii. with dreams unsaid and final words**_

A Sunday filled with dirty city rain and towering shadows that linger long past the setting sun, bring Justin to the basement.

"Why are you still running on that thing?"

She gulps down water and air and pushes her legs just that much further. "Maybe I wasn't good enough to win on my own last time, I just need the practice."

"Is that a dictionary you're reading?"

She blushed but looked ahead. "I want to learn how to spell."

"Training for another third grade spelling bee."

"This time I hope to remember how to spell sergeant."

"Magic isn't all that bad you know."

"I guess."

He sits on her bed and she keeps running. She tempted to laugh to fill the silence.

"Do you wish you had left with your parents?"

"Sometimes."

"Why do you always let Alex get away with stuff?"

"Why do you?"

"I don't know." She can feel his eyes but she refuses to look into them. She's over the hopefully maybe.

"I think, it's because I need the chaos. I need something to fill up the imbetween. I don't like the quiet, it leaves to much space for thinking."

"Yeah you never have to think when Alex is involved." She hears his grin and she let's her own fall on her lips.

"But really Harper, what's so bad that you can't stand the silence."

She runs harder and turns up the dogs

.

_**iii. and i broke under Christ seeking guilty signs **_

She leaves Justin a note on Thursday.

She bites her nails and hums something about work and play and the days that were better.

He shows up three hours later, his eyes wide and she feels silly and unsure like maybe nothings ever going to change at all.

"What is this?" The paper flutters to the table and she doesn't shudder.

"It's all the reported mummy sightings I could find." She wrings her fingers under the table. "Well the ones that sounded realistic. Alex should me how to use that wizard internet thingy."

"Why-"

"You love her."

She doesn't tell him she loves him.

"Thank you."

"Look you'll need help. You should ask Alex. You need someone who's good at thinking on their feet."

"You come."

She rolls her eyes. "Yeah what with my magical powers and stellar ability not to faint under pressure, how could you not do this with me."

"I want to do this with you."

"Why?"

"I don't know."

She folds the paper into a perfect square. "Okay. But you'll have to show me how."

She doesn't think she's just talking about search and rescue.

_**iv. putting reason to flight**_

They spend hours and days (months, sometimes between Alex and school and never sleeping it feels like years) narrowing down sightings and making wizard phone calls and she sets up a map with colorful pins (blue is where she could be and red is where she might have been, green is a no go and yellow is places she might go.)

It happens on a Friday and her skin feels slimy and maybe she hasn't showered or slept but they're so close.

"Greece."

Justin's red rimmed eyes slide to her.

She licks her lips and repeats. "Greece. There's been sightings there. And a new mummy exhibit's opened. It's got to be. I know."

"Then to Greece we go."

She shakes her head. "No. To Greece you go. My parents-"

"I can't go without you. I couldn't have gotten this far-"

"I know. But, don't you think this should be your moment. White knight. Shining horse." She rolls her tongue. "You know what I mean."

He grins and leans close enough that she can feel the eight day old stubble through her shirt.

"I need you, though."

She stretches out her toes. "My parents flew back in tonight. I have to at least see them. Eat dinner and make small talk."

"After."

She wants to say no. That she'd give him anything. But watching them find each other and fall into bliss will break her. And if he cared, he wouldn't ask.

If he cared, she thinks. "Sure. After." Because he doesn't, she reminds herself.

Three hours and a shower later she feels like maybe everything will work out fine.

Maybe her parents are better and maybe her life is going where she needs it to.

Maybe her Mom will pull her close like before and tell her she's beautiful and her Dad will make a silly joke about something and they'll laugh and she finally find her way home.

"Bye everyone. I'll be back in a couple of hours."

Justin's waiting at the door. "So, eight?"

"Yeah. Eight."

"Call if anything happens."

"Hey. Hey. What are you two whispering about over there?" Harper turns to stare at Alex and finds all the other Russo's looking long.

"We have a plan for a silent movie at eight tonight."

"You two aren't like dating or anything like that, right?" Jerry hands twitch at his side and years of being Alex's friend and months of sharing his roof have taught her that he's two seconds away from a full blown rant.

"No. Just friends. We're working on a project."

"About silent movies." Justin rushes.

"About mummies." She says.

She leaves before anyone can say anything else.

_**v. the breeze stank of sunset and camphor**_

Her Dad's grinding his teeth.

She sighs and giggles.

Her mother glares and Harper laughs.

"Harper really. My goodness. You haven't grown up at all."

She bites her lip to stop from making a sound. But she'd rather look silly laughing than look pathetic crying.

"What do you expect Samantha? She's your daughter through and through." He jabs his steak and Harper looks down to her half devoured chicken.

"Very nice, David. Wonderful. Insult me in public now."

"Why not, you're insulting me by being here. Shouldn't you be out spending money that I've earned, on shit for yourself."

"Why shouldn't I spend that money, I earned it by putting up with your horrible attitude."

"I won a marathon." She nearly shouts.

"Harper! You're father and I are talking."

"And really, you? You won a marathon. You don't look like you've lost weight or been training. And you ate that meal so fast you'd think you'd have a vacuum for a mouth."

She clamps her mouth shut and thinks she'll never find a way home.

_**vi. vows in fragrant blood**_

After dinner and inane laughter that she wishes she could take back she walks around the city.

It glows and calls to her and she's never away from noise. There's the honking horns and the shouting and the burn of incandesnt lights to keep her warm.

"Harper. God, I've been calling you and looking for you and I thought something horrible had happened and I went over to you're parents hotel and let me just say your dad? He's a jerk. And it's raining and you don't have a coat." He pulls her under his umbrella and she still doesn't shudder.

"God, I'm so sorry, Justin. I completely lost track of time." She looks down at her watch and sees it's nearly midnight. "We still have time though, we don't have school tomorrow. We can take the IPP and find her."

"Don't worry about it right now, what happened? Why are you wondering around New York at midnight."

"It's not quite midnight you know. We still have like fifteen minutes."

He rolls his eyes and she can see the lights reflect off the white in his eyes.

"Harper."

"I laugh in the silence."

"Yeah. I know."

"Because I can't stand thinking that this is all there is."

"All what is?"

"The fighting and the meanness. And never being good enough or pretty enough or enough of anything at all. I can't stand my mother's voice in the silence and my father's coldness. It wasn't always like that you know. When Peter was alive. God. It was great and my Dad always came home and my Mom was always happy and Peter and I got into adventures and my Dad would spin me in circles and call me Love and Princess and Baby. He told me I could be anything in the whole world and I believed him. I-" She can't tell if it's tears or the rain on her cheeks. She laughs instead. Pathetic or silly. Silly and Pathetic, she's always one and most of the time she's both. And she's tired and lonely and she wishes Peter was alive and her Mom was still here and her Dad didn't hate her for living and Peter for dying.

"Harper, you can do anything and you're so much. You're-"

She wrenches herself from him and stands outside the shade of his umbrella. "Stop. Okay. Just- Please don't say anything. Don't say nice things to me. Don't make me feel better. Because, I can't. Okay. I just can't."

He brushes off the rain from her cheeks and hugs her like maybe it would be okay. But this time she doesn't believe. There was no home for her. No enough she could be. Tomorrow they'd find Juliet and she'd go back to before.

She wasn't going to pretend anymore.

"Let's go find Juliet." Off in the distance there's a honking horn and someone shouting about the end of the world.

_**vii. was starred with frost**_

Greece is unusually warm and her skin feels red and she's sure that everything would be more beautiful if she wasn't thinking of cancer and moles.

"I forget sometimes about your brother."

She wishes she could to. "Lots of people do. A couple weeks ago, Alex told Robbie that I was an only child. I mean I guess I am. But it doesn't feel like it. Not really. It's like I know he's here. Somewhere. Like when I was a kid and we'd play hide and seek. Just because I don't see him..." Her voice falls way.

When he turns to her his eyes are shadowed. "I miss him to." He reaches up and runs his fingers across her face and neck. "Sunblock. We can't have you getting sunburned."

"What did you tell everyone?"

"That we were going to a silent movie." He takes her hand and leads her to the exhibit. "So when it's almost time for them to close, I'll use magic to transform us into objects till everything shuts down. We find the mummy, I say the spell, we save Juliet."

"Everyone goes home. And everything goes back to normal." She says.

"At least, normal for us." He gives her a smile.

She wishes she could give him one back.

"What's wrong?"

She looks to the sun.

"Harper, really, you could go blind that way."

She closes her eyes and sees red and burn and life the way it always was.

"Talk to me." His head turns the her closed eyes black.

"I don't know."

"What?"

"I don't know what's wrong." She shakes her head. No she does. She knows. She knows that she loves him. Or that she wants to love him. That if she had time and him then she would love him and maybe he'd love her to and then she'd be worth something more than a laugh. Because if someone as great as Justin loved her the her parents could love her again.

Her face feels warm and wet and she's still staring at where the sun was. That, she thought, was always her problem, always looking at what had been and never what was going to be.

She can feel his fingers at her cheek and at her neck and catching each drop on his hands. He isn't talking but he's swaying because her eyes are still squeezed shut and the red and black are blurring and biting at her. She wants him to say something. Tell her to stop blubbering or to ignore the tears. To push her away or something. She doesn't want him to understand.

Because she hates the silence of others, but she's use to the loneliness of herself.

"Harper, when I say it's going to go back to normal I mean-"

"Don't." It's haggard and watery and she hates herself more for the sound than the action.

"I care-"

"No."

"Let me finish-"

She opens her eyes and sees him to close. Can see the hairs sprouting across his chin and the frown line between his brows. "No. Don't look, it's Peter and Mom and Dad, it's magic and change and not changing and I'm tired. I haven't slept and I feel like I'm on fire and it's nothing. Or it's everything. It's not this. It's not about us. Not the way, not this way. Please. I know you love her. I know. And I do love you. Maybe it's not in love with you, maybe it's I want to be in love with you, to worth loving. And I want to be wanted, and if you look at me like that, with your face wrinkled and concerned and say that there's no hope then I'll be embarrassed or hurt and if you tell me there is, then I think your a liar. And I don't want to. So just leave it alone. Please."

His hands fall to her wrist and he nods. His lips thinned into a blank line.

"Let's do this then." His fingers lace through hers and she let's the sun dry her face.

_**viii. like the shadows they cast**_

It's over quickly without the usually disarray that she's left with a strange anticipation.

There home by early Sunday, Jerry is all grunts and raspy air and she grits her teeth and clutches the couch beneath her for the yelling.

Justin keeps looking at her, his eyes sliding and if Juliet wasn't pressed so tight to his side, she thought his hand might have found hers.

It's Theresa that finally says something. "There will be punishment, I know it was for a good cause, but something could have happened to you." Theresa's fingers glide over Justin's head and then come to Harper's own. "Whether you know it or not, Harper, you're apart of this family to, and what would we have done if something had happened?" Her mouth thins for a moment but underneath the beginning glare is a relief and a smile. "But it's late and you're tired and Juliet needs to go home to, her family has missed her. The punishment will be decided after sleep."

"What the chizz!" Alex shoots. "I go off on adventures and do stuff and I get." Her hands jet out and she deepens her voice to sound like Jerry. "Alex! Justin and Harper leave the COUNTRY and take on a MUMMY and they get sleep!?"

"Alex, you're not suppose to be in here!" Theresa's hands slam to her hips and Alex stomps a foot and heads off.

Her voice carries from the top of the stairs. "Fine. But next time I take the IPP to a different country and do stuff, I want to sleep to!"

"Bed."

Harper trudges to the basement. She wonders if maybe they'll send her to her parents.

She wonders about they're new house and how thick the walls are there. She slips into clean clothes and slides off her shoes.

Her teeth feel rough with dirt and she thinks about the stairs and the climb and how she'll have to brush them again anyway later, when a shadow looms from the top.

"Alex?"

"No."

She sits up but doesn't turn the light on.

"What?"

"When Peter died, I stopped... I don't know. Being as nice to you. I don't know why. I guess-"

"Because it was my fault."

His at the her side of the bed in a blink. "No. Never. I just. You're like him you know. It was weird. He was my best friend."

"You don't have to say anything. Really." She stares at her bed and the shadow of him on her sheets. "I... I shouldn't have... I don't know. I shouldn't have dared him, you know. We were so... I wasn't like this. I know. I was willing to do anything. My Grandpa said I was like Anne Shirley. Never back down and willing to find trouble. And we shouldn't have been that close to the street. Peter died. And it's my fault. It is. I took him from my parents. From you and all his other friends. And now, that's why I have to be like this." She bites her lip and wishes she could stop her mouth sometimes.

He sinks beside her. His skin is warm and she can smell his soap and him and she wants to cry again.

"Peter dared you to do the same. I remember. Only you said, do it first then. And he did. If you had done it, it would have been you. I don't think..." His fingers curl around hers. There both looking anywhere but at each other. "I couldn't imagine..." But his body twists and his other fingers touch her neck. "Never you."

"Back to normal."

"Normal changes all the time."

"Not for me. Not anymore."

"For everyone, Harper." He pushes her chin up. "I do love you, Harper."

"But you're not-"

"Maybe it's not in love. But I love you. And I was in love with her. But... it's not...she's not and I'm not and we're not...the same."

"She looked pretty in love."

"She just got back from being a mummy's mind slave. But I walked her home. We talked. Things change. Her parents... she's moving and things..."

"Change?" She says.

"All the time."

He doesn't kiss her and she's okay with that. But she leans in and his forehead is on hers.

They're sharing air and time and things change.

She's not okay.

Peter's still dead and there's Alex and punishment and her Mom and Dad and life.

But maybe there's hope and when she finally sleeps, the fog has lifted.


	2. But The Fog Has Lifted To A Cruel Summer

**Hot Summer Streets**

_justin/harper_

_chapter two: ghost in the fog_

**i: the city is crowed**

Daniel goes missing on Wednesday, a warm day that's left the grey buildings shadowed and glowing as if they to are dripping with sweat and exhaustion. It's Angela, the werewolf from Japan, that tells her.

She spends English drumming her fingers across the desk and fighting the tightening of her stomach.

It takes her an hour to find Justin.

When she sees him, he's standing on the balcony of the apartment, staring at the dying sky. She almost wishes should could give him the peace from knowing.

But somewhere another magical person has vanished. Only this time, it's someone they know. It's more than a report here or there. More than a friend of a friend, more even than a frightened whisper of maybe. She presses her hands hard to her hips and clears her throat.

"Hey." She walks to him slowly. Her feet soft on the cement. She's always been afraid of balconies and ledges, she knows their safe, at least in theory. But somehow the thought of hovering feet and inches above the ground leaves her woozy.

When he turns, she can tell that he knows, his eyes are shaded and afraid. She wants to laugh, because wasn't it just a year ago she didn't know, hadn't understood about magic and them and the worlds that existed beyond her knowing. And even more, just months ago she'd been a simple girl that still, having known, feared them. But there was Justin and her and searching for someone lost.

It had been the one thing she could do without Alex's magical help.

And now there was something wrong with that newly uncovered world.

When she reaches him, she lets her fingers rest on his shoulder, his heat is almost to much, he'd been standing out here for awhile then, she thought, and let her hand rest all the way on him.

"Justin?"

His eyes are strange. And his face is heavy and full, she doesn't stop her hand from going to his cheek.

"Daniel."

She nods and without pulling his head falls to her shoulder. She tries to think of any words that could soothe him.

Daniel, the magical Cyclops from Greece, and hadn't they spoken to him just days ago. He'd been laughing as usual and telling them they should visit again soon, and this time, he'd begged them to come for fun and not on some mission to save a vampire.

They'd promised.

And she'd left Justin and him to chat, while she'd been off to the movies with Alex.

She wished she had stayed. Asked Daniel where he'd be going, told him she would see him soon.

Instead she'd seen some action flick, where the heroes always win.

She knew they rarely did.

And now, their friend was gone. Daniel who'd let them stay with him, when they'd been rescuing Juliet. Daniel who'd spent so much of his life in front of computers and behind closed doors because he was afraid of that the world would fear him and hate him and maybe, Harper lamented, he had been right.

"Did he tell you what he was going to be doing?"

Justin's face was as warm as the air outside. And with his arms wrapped long around her she felt like she was evaporating and leaving the world she knew.

"No."

She licked her lips and rested her own face on his head. "Did someone-"

"Jessie told me."

"Angela told me." She pulls away long enough to catches his face.

"He never really goes anywhere. And Jessie said that when he stopped by after Daniel didn't email him like usual, his house was fine and nothing was even a little out of place."

She shakes her head and lets her hands drop all the way to her side.

Her brain is clicking with maybes and almost and something that niggles at her spine.

When she was a little girl, her brother collected all the Superman comics, she use to sneak into his room and read them. She fell in love with Lois Lane. The idea that of truth and justice. But Peter died and with it all that adventurous spirit. But with Juliet and searching, it was crawling back over her.

In the background the front door is slammed and they both decided to pretend that everything is fine.

**ii: my friends are away**

She's getting use to the silence. Sometimes, she can sit for hours without needing to fill it up.

It helps to have someone who knows.

She coughs and counts to ten. Dinner with the Russo's always makes her nervous. Like somewhere a shoe is waiting to drop, she expects, always, suddenly for Jerry to turn dark or for Theresa's lips to turn into lines of disappointment.

But, unless Alex's latest scheme has gone horrible awry, it's always filled with real laughter and genuine affection. As long as, she reminds herself, no board games are lined in front of them.

"So can we?" Alex bounces in her seat, Alex grins and bites her lip. Harper holds back a sigh, it was Alex's tell, the sure sign that something was amiss.

"Look, I don't know that we can afford a family vacation this year, and even if we can, Europe is very..."

Harper tries to keep the heat from her face, she was an added expense, she knew her parents sent money for her, but it wasn't a lot.

"I was thinking of going to my parents for the summer. Pittsburgh has lots of stuff to do and..." She looks down for just a second. "I do miss my parents."

"No." They all turn to look sideways at Justin. Harper can see the words between them. "I just mean, it won't be much of a family vacation if Harper isn't there. It is my last family vacation."

"God, you're going to still be living here and you're only going to NYU. It's not like you're actually leaving." Alex's tongue is on the verge of sticking out at him.

"My BABY!" Theresa's eyes well up and Harper feels better that the stares are gone from her.

"Now honey, it's still four months away."

"He's so old now."

"I'm only eighteen."

"Hey Hey, we're talking vacation here. This year should be cool." Alex gives her a wink and she sighs.

"Alex, really, I mean..." She pretends not to notice Jerry's eyes flicking to her.

"And aren't your parents like taking their annual separate vacations." She wishes again, that Alex knew when to let things alone.

"Why don't we do that, I'd like to go to Mars again!"

"Max!"

"No one in this house is going on separate vacations."

She wants to tell them that she could go with her Mom or her Aunt Janice, who, now that her parents are gone, has come from the woodwork. She could stay in a hotel or stay here, she doesn't want to be the burden her parents think she is.

Instead she eats and stares and stays as quiet as she can.

The rest of dinner is spent talking about anything else.

**iii: leaving me here**

When she opens her eyes he's standing in the middle of the stairs.

"I didn't want to wake you."

She shakes her head. "You didn't. Promise."

"Don't go."

She traces numbers on her thigh. "I need to-"

"They don't deserve to have you around."

"Families aren't for deserving, they just are."

When he sits the bed sinks around him. His heat is spreading toward her and she fights the rush from the change around them.

"Sharon called me just a minute ago."

She lets the length of her shin press against him. "What was it this time? A goblin or a Genie or let me guess a-"

"Becca is missing."

They're eyes finally meet. "But I thought," She bites the inside of her cheek and thinks of Daniel "weren't the others, well, 'monsters'." She makes the quotations with her hand.

Justin nods and let's his fingers rest on her knee. "Something's wrong."

"Magical creatures missing." April, the vampire. David part Zombie, and the others, a dozen or so. She had talked to Jessie earlier too. Each one special. And each family had to hide what connected each case. "What does the Monster Hunters Council say?"

He snorts. "It's not a priority. You know, sometimes-" He shakes his head and leans back to lay on her bed. "Something is wrong and all they say is one less monster to catch. Only, they aren't bad. Not all of them. Like Juliet and the others, Daniel, and they're hiding, like us. You know, all of us, Wizards and unicorns and we're all being hunted by someone and somehow none of us can work together."

She almost runs her fingers through his hair. But somehow it makes her stomach ache. They aren't there yet. Maybe they'll never be. It's strange to have let go of someone and still be pulled by them.

"We'll look into it." She almost gasps to realize she means it. She feels the tightness of her spine release.

He stares out of the corner of his eye. "We will?"

She nods. "If they won't do anything, we will. Like Juliet. I mean you'll have to some more things. Like the magic-y stuff. But..." She doesn't know exactly what she does. She isn't tough or very strong. She just doesn't give up. She won't sleep or rest or stop till she finds what happened. "It'll be like a Mythical Creatures Recovery Agency." She smiles at him and let's her fingers fall to his cheek. "They're our friends. They put themselves on the line to help us find Juliet. We should do the same."

He nods and leans into her fingers. "Okay. Together."

"What the hell is going on down here!" Alex's tone is hard.

Justin jumps from her bed and she can't help but move slower as if everything is honey time.

"We're going to help some people who are missing." She says it slowly as if the words were caught in her mouth.

"Really? So you, like, have to touch my brother's head to save people now?" She puts her hand on her hip and for a minute Harper wants to laugh because she looks so much like Theresa. "And you?!" Alex's finger jets into Justin's chest. "You don't even like Harper, you like begged me not to let her live here. You said, She'll like stare at me all the time and-"

"Alex!" Justin push her toward the stairs.

"Well, it's true! And-"

"I'm tired." She places her hands flat on her bed and soaks up the cold spots.

"Harper..." Justin's voice is soft and strange and she feels the lump in her chest.

She knows how she is. The desperate frantic need of herself. She's both ashamed and oddly understanding of it. But she doesn't want to hear them talk of it.

"Really, it's late and I should call my parents tomorrow."

When she looks up from her pale yellow sheets, Alex's lip is stuck between her teeth and she looks afraid.

"I'm sorry. Really Harper, I don't know, I get jealous."

"What of?" Harper asks.

"You're spending more and more time with Justin. And where does that leave us? You're my best friend, you should be helping with my schemes and brushing my hair."

"You want me to brush your hair, you hate when I touch your hair, you're always afraid I'll pull it out."

"You have!"

"I was seven. I said I was sorry."

Alex flops on her bed. "Me too."

"I really am tired."

"Me too." Alex yawns and grins and Harper can't help but do the same. She looks from the corner of her eye at Justin. She gives him a smile. And in it is hidden a knowledge that tomorrow they'll work something out. Even if it's only a plan about Daniel and Becca.

He gives her a nod and when she turns to Alex she's already slipped under the covers.

"Tell me the truth." Alex says.

She nods and leans in close. "It's about, well, things that happened when we were looking for Juliet. There were these people, Becca and Daniel and-"

"Not that. I mean, you can tell me that later. But I mean, with you two. Are you dating?"

She stares at Alex for a long minute. Remembers that night ages ago when they'd, her and Justin, sat on this bed and known everything had changed. But they'd never really figured out what.

"I don't think so."

"You don't think so?"

"It's not like that with us, it's like, knowing you care for someone, but not knowing where to go from there."

"Usually it's kissing." Alex grins and Harper has to giggle. She can taste Alex's toothpaste on the air and her warmth staining those much loved yellow sheets. The bed is to small and the night is to hot but Harper's glad she's here.

"We're not usual."

"No, you're not." Alex leans close to her and they share a pillow like years ago when they'd first met and been forced to stay in Ms. Marlo's room.

Somewhere between laughing and sighing and their warm bodies, Harper's eyes closed and she saw Peter calling for her.

**iv: to close to comfort**

She skips the next day. Pleads sick and sore and coughs with wet eyes.

Theresa promises to bring her some tea.

She stamps down the feeling of guilt.

Justin appears two hours later.

She's already knee deep in books and her laptop is open to every 'monster' website she could find.

"I talked to Sharon again, told her what we were going to do."

"She told you it was stupid didn't she?"

He nods and sinks to the floor beside her bed. This time she lets her hands brush his hair without worry.

"I know it's a bad idea, but I can't not do something."

"I know, I feel the same. I know we don't have as much to go on as we did with Juliet. But..." Her voice falls away and she has to bite her lip.

There was something they were missing. Something that all of those kids had in common, besides being magical.

She shook her head.

"We need to go where they were last seen."

"I don't think your Mom is going to believe I'm sick again tomorrow."

When he looks up at her she feels her chest ache. "School is over in a month."

"Can we wait that long?"

She isn't sure.

**v: now you're gone**

When she sleeps she sees Daniel. He's in the dark, calling her name and his eye is closed. She reaches for him but he's always just to far.

There's Becca to. Her pale skin and her back that bowed in pain. She shivered.

Becca's eyes were open and wide. "Come find us." Becca's voice sounded like bells.

And further in she saw Peter, not as he was the last time she saw him, young and brave but as he would have been if he had lived. She called to him and through the darkness she could see the world on hanging from his lips.

When she woke, her face was covered in sweat and the sun was barely new.

**vi: what did they say **

"It's the same person." Justin is standing in his cap and gown in front of the mirror.

"What do you mean?" She fixes his hat.

"Becca and Daniel. I think they've been taken by the same person. "She licks her lips before she continues. "I've been having dreams. I know that it sounds weird but I think they're contacting me."

"Becca and Daniel don't have dream leaper powers."

She nods. "I know but what if... what if they're all in the same place. All the missing magical people. What if they're been caught... studied... I don't know. Kept or imprisoned."

"All this from a dream?"

"What if one of the people there can go into dreams?"

"If the same person or persons have all those people, then wouldn't they have ways to stop their powers? I mean if you have wizards and vampires and werewolves, they're strength is more powerful than-"

"What if they don't know that the person has those powers?"

He shakes his head. "I don't know-"

"It's the best we got right now."

"But how would someone find all those magical creatures? I mean it's not like our networks are that easy to find."

She shakes her head. "I don't know yet, but it makes sense don't you think?"

"What if-"

"What?"

"Daniel, he'd been talking about something before he went missing."

"What was it?"

"I'm not sure, a club or a shop, something, I can't remember."

"It's something, right?" She grins at him and he pulls her into a hug.

"You're going to do great, I can't wait to hear your speech."

"I don't know, Harper, it feels weird. Like something is all over."

"Something is."

She means high school but it feels like something so much bigger.

**vii: it's a cruel summer**

She wanders up 87th street thinking about the Vampire's council last email. Thirteen vampires missing in the last year.

Werewolves were at six and fairies were at nine.

They were all between sixteen and twenty.

Young.

Too young.

The sign above the club shown in the twilight. She felt afraid, but the why was unknown. It was like the calm before the storm.

Something was coming. But she couldn't figure out what.

Not with Daniel and Becca and not with school or her parents.

Especially not with Justin, who despite still living at home was going to be moving on. From what she still didn't know. But it was hard to ignore that soon, he'd be facing college and so would she. In a year she'd be heading off to her own adventure and who knew if it be in New York, especially since now she knew there was so much more out there.

"Hey, I heard there's a Monster Hunter around here."

She turned to look at the guys standing in the line. Dark.

Vampires.

It was in there eyes.

She stared at the sign above them.

In red glowing letters it said. The Abyss.

She felt the world turn.

**viii: i sit around**

"It's that club."

"Which one?"

She grabs Justin's hand and leads him to The Abyss.

"I heard them talking about Monster Hunters."

"Let's go in then."

They're vastly underdressed and she feels like she sticks out more than usual. Her bright colors and shaking hands.

When they get to the front of the line, they shake their head at her but with a once over at Justin, he's let in.

He refuses to go in without her.

"Justin." She whispers. "You have to. You said Daniel mentioned a club, what if it's one like this. I can't get in, I'm too…"

"But you're better at fitting clues together."

She shakes her head and nudges him.

"I need you, Harper. I can't do this without you. I've never been good at thinking on my feet."

"Neither have I."

"But your good at seeing what others can't." He tugs at her sleeve, she's wearing the city tonight, in shades of green and blue and grey.

They leave but don't forget.

**ix. the air is so heavy **

"We're going camping!"

Harper's eyes are wide and she looks to Alex for support.

"Eww…" Is all Alex has to say.

"No, it's perfect. It's a way for us all to be together this summer, but without the crazy expense!" Jerry's eyes are dancing and Harper doesn't have the heart to shudder in front of him. "We've never been to Yellowstone or ummm those other places. We can go there and sleep-"

"On the ground, Dad. It'll be all hard and groundy!"

"I think it's a great idea." Justin's voice is low and odd and when Harper chances a look at him, his eyes say it all.

"Me too, Mr. Russo."

Later, when Jerry takes Justin, Alex and Max to the movies, Theresa finds her in her room.

"You know Harper, you're family."

She can't help but grin at her. "Thanks, Mrs. Russo."

"You can call me Theresa." She gives her a one armed hug. "I know it's been hard on you with your parents and all but here, you are safe and sound. We love you and we're not going to let anything happen to you."

She feels that way for the first time in a long time.

**x: the air is so dry**

She dreams of haunted faces. People she knows but can't remember. There's wings and fangs and she isn't afraid.

Not of them.

In the distance, there's a shadow. She shudders at it's loom. It stretches above them all, she has to pause in her run, she knows, somehow that she can't not reach them in time, not without being seen.

And she fears what will happen when the shadow takes on a body.

Somewhere in the darkness she can hear Daniel and Becca and the others calling for her.

Find them. Help them.

She knows Peter must be there too. Waiting for her to help him.

They need her. And she's so close. She knows that.

But not close enough.

When she wakes the clock is blinking and outside the first summer storm rages.

**xi: strange voices are saying **

She finds herself at Justin's door the day before graduation. She wants to tell him something, anything but all she can think of is her parents and her brother and the end of school and she thinks of The Abyss and her missing friends that she can't find.

She wants to tell him she gets it. Why it is that even though, they both obviously care for one another, that they can't be together. And it's not about age or her living here, it's both less and more than that. It's that they're both a little afraid and they're both young. And maybe someday or maybe never. That she finally gets that it's not the being together that matters, it's that they care at all.

She wants to tell him that she loves him. That this time she doesn't mean in some round about way with crazy obsession. But really does because he gets her and knows her and he remembers the girl she was and the teenager she became and what she hopes to be. She loves him because he's there inside her, and she loves him because for the first time she isn't trying to fix things with his love. Yet his love is still there. And that it's enough. They are. She wants to say how proud she is and how scared and she wants to tell him about her dreams, the ones where she's writing and happy and her parents are far away.

Instead she leaves a note posted to his door that says. "Good Luck."

It's almost enough.

**xii: the pavements are burning**

After graduation and school there's the bright sun and a feeling at her back that there no more time.

"I have to get into that club. I know the answers there."

"We try every week, they still won't let you in." Justin and her are walking around the city and she's always hated the way it smelt in the summer.

"Then you have to go in without me." He shakes his head. And she grabs his hand. "You have to. And maybe once your in, you can find a way for me to get in."

He kisses her as an answer and she wishes it was about being happy and not afraid.

But he still tastes of hope and summer and the faintest hint of change.

She doesn't let him go.

**xiii: trying to smile **

They're do to leave for the camping trip in two weeks.

It makes her stomach hurt to think so much still has to be done. And when she dreams, she still sees the others. They're gaunt faces and that shadow slowly and horribly taking shape.

Last night she'd begun to see his fingers. Shaped and real and the tattoo that rested between his thumb and finger.

She'd woke up crying.

Like maybe she knew how it all had to end.

She didn't tell Justin.

Instead they found a way into The Abyss on Wednesday.

She tried not to think about the quote as she snuck into the back door.

But still it hung in the curtains of her mind.

Inside was dark and cool and she could smell something strange in the air, her dark dress and high heels and she felt odd. Like power was slipping into her.

When Justin took her hand she could feel his magic. Like falling, but never hitting the ground.

And through the darkness she could see the shadow, his wide smile was looming over them. And she wasn't afraid.

"Justin, it's him."

"Who?"

She pressed her lips together and leaned to his ear. "Him." She whispered, pushing the knowledge to him. His eyes searched and she knew the moment he saw the shadow, his body stiffened and she fought off the shiver and the grin.

"Harper, you need to leave."

"I can't. I'm a part of this now. I have to stay. You needed me, remember?"

"He-"

She nods. "I know, Justin. I think maybe I've always known."

She lets go of his hand. She thinks of his kiss and of sharing a warm bed with Alex. She knows what she has to do.

"Harper, I don't know what you're thinking but it doesn't have to be this way."

She thinks maybe it does.

She can hear Justin behind her. His frantic call, and beside her, all around her she can feel the beating of magic and endless life.

Mythical.

Magic.

Power.

She knew what the shadow was after.

She walked up the stairs to him and knew the abyss was staring back at her.

**xiv: things i can't understand**

"I didn't think you'd ever make it."

She shook her head. "Why not just let me come through the front door?"

"Because you had to really want it, not be afraid of it, I had to make you work for it."

He was beautiful.

Everything she imagined he'd be. With careless hair and a smile as cruel as war.

"Why me?"

"You're mortal like me." He laughed and she shivered. "Or rather like I was."

"There's plenty of mortals."

"But not like you." He slipped his finger across her collarbone. "We're of a different kind. Borderlines. Knowers. We live among those _things_, and powerless to stop them if they should come for us."

"They wouldn't."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Silly girl. Stupid girl." He slide to the wall where he faded in out between shadow and real. "They'll live forever."

"Wizards-"

"Real ones, the ones that aren't you're pathetic little council controlled friends, live a lot longer than you'd ever realize. But power is like that. The Wizard Council decided long ago that too many wizards would lead to wars and being found out and that letting only one of any wizard family keep their powers would make them good. But real wizards the ones that rebelled and didn't stay within council control, they formed a different kind of union- " He grinned again and like the Cheshire cat his teeth were glaring against the nothingness. "But that's unimportant. What is important Harper is that I've found a way to make them share. The wizards and magical beings shouldn't be the only ones with limitless age and power."

"I don't want it."

"Of course you do. Everyone does. You could change things Harper. You could make everyone you love happy. Even your parents. Yourself." His hands were on her again. "You could bring back your brother. You could right that long ago wrong. You're right you know, it should have been you. If you'd gone first like your brother dared you. Like it was suppose to be." His voice made the world blur and she felt sick and wounded.

"Justin would still be with Juliet. Like he should."

Should he, she thought, maybe so. Maybe he would have found a way without her. And he'd be happy and he'd never of know about this things.

Alex could have gone to Europe with Mason and his family.

Peter would live.

And her parents would remember her as she was to them then.

They would have loved her.

And all she would have to do is-

"How?"

"I need you to sacrifice yourself. Willingly. Happily and then-"

They would be happy.

Daniel and Becca she thought, what about them.

"Don't worry about those friends of yours. I'll take care of them, I just needed them to lead me to you."

"But why me?"

She felt his fingers across her neck and her breath was low and shallow and she was so tired.

"Don't you remember me?"

His eyes were so much like Peter's. Was he him? Yes.

"Peter?"

"Yes little bell." Yes. It had to be him, only Peter called her that. But she would have always done this for him.

"Just shut your eyes, little bell. You sleep and I wake."

It all felt so simple. And she should give her life for his.

She owed him that, her parents that.

Peter living and Daniel and the others they'd be okay to. Because Peter wouldn't have use them to find her. She known that, hadn't she? That she'd have to die for them all to live.

The dreams wasn't it.

Or coming inside here.

She blinked and thought of Justin's kiss and Alex's friendship. Theresa's voice called to hear. She was safe and sound and it would all be okay.

She saw Peter there too, but the way he was. His grin and she was happy. 'Don't die, little bell. I would never ask for you.'

She shook her head.

"No. Close your eyes."

She shook her head again. Everything was so fast, Justin and the Russo's and her family and Nanny. Vampires and Daniel and Peter that was so unlike her Peter.

"You can't be."

His grip tightened on her throat. "I am."

"No. Peter wouldn't ask me to die."

She opened her eyes wide. His eyes were red.

"Why couldn't you just believe?"

"What is this really?"

"So stupid. Don't you get it. Couldn't you feel it when you walked in. The power, Harper."

"This about power, taking those kids and-"

He grinned again but she thought it looked smaller and dimmer and not at all as beautiful as she remembered.

"I figured out a way to take it from them. Oh, it hurts them and all but well it'll all end for them anyway."

"But why me of all the mortals in the-"

"Because you really are an imbetween. You may be mortal but you're one of the few who knows. Not like Theresa, she knows but it's through marriage and birth, you though, you know of free will and choice, you could betray them. If you sacrificed yourself, I could have them. Mothers and wives never do that."

"Neither will I."

"Then you are of no use to me."

The blackness closed around her throat again.

Poor Daniel she thought. Poor them all. She would die and how would she save them then.

Shadows had been one of the few things in the world that hadn't scared her.

It should have been the only thing that did.

The lights were low and her eyes where heavy.

She knew then.

Shadows and light.

He wasn't real yet. Not all the way.

She reached behind her for the light switch and brightness pushed him to the wall.

"That can't hold me forever."

"Maybe not forever but till I figure out how to stop you."

She turned to the door. And felt the pull of him. "You can't escape me. Just because light pulls me back doesn't me I don't have magic of my own."

She shook her head and struggled with the door.

"Justin." It wasn't a scream but a whisper, she hoped the free magic that wafted through the air would find him.

"Think of it this way, Harper, you're stuck with me. Only at some point that light will burn away and those kids will die and their power will come to me and you'll be at my mercy. Of which, I have none." The wall grinned.

"I don't need your mercy. I need faith. Of which, I have." She grinned right back.

She heard her name on the air and with her thoughts called to him and the others. All of them on the floor, dancing and drinking and living.

She laughed. "Viva la revolution."

The shadowed mouth on the wall looked grim. "What is that?"

"That's the sound of good winning."

**xv: you're not the only one**

She hugs Daniel first. His eye was black and blue but his grin was wide. "I should have know Harper would figure it out."

She shakes head. "No, it was all an accident."

"Luck or talent, as long as it gets you to the end."

Soon the hospital room is full of people thanking her and her friends.

But it's Justin's eyes that stay glued to her.

After they've all gone she chances him. "What?"

"You could have-"

"I didn't."

His hands close over hers and he kisses the bruise on her neck. "Will you tell me what happened up there. I couldn't- There was a moment when I was sure I could hear you saying goodbye."

"We have loads of time Justin. Tons and tons. And someday I will. But for now, let's just be happy."


End file.
